'he following statement was issue ctober 8 ov the Centra Committee of th Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Communist League), French sec tion of the Fourth International. The translation and footnotes are by Intercontinental Press/ Inprecor.]
Eight months after the March elections, the political situation in France is characterized by:
• The brutality of a bourgeois offensive that not only increases both unemployment and inflation, but also directly threatens a number of gains previously won by workers;
• The fact that the working-class response is stymied by political and tradeunion divisions and by the classcollaborationist orientation of the bureaucratic leaderships, which together represent the main obstacle to the deepening and coordination of struggles.
The strikes that have taken place since March 19 in important sectors (Santé, Moulinex, Renault, Arsenaux, SNCF [the railroads], etc.) and the results of the byelections confirm that the working class remains mobilized. Despite the effects of the economic crisis-the existence of 1.5 million unemployed, the defeat of numerous struggles, and especially the defeat of the Union of the Left-the combativity of the workers remains at a high level and there is still massive opposition to the government.
1. Phase III of the Barre [austerity] plan is not simply the 1.5 million unemployed and the more than 10% rise in prices. It includes the rise in layoffs and factory closings that hits entire branches and regions. It means the taking back of gains and benefits previously won by the working class (the forty-hour week, minimum wage, 90% Social Security, job-related health care, grievance procedures), a process in which the government tries to directly involve the trade-union
1 leader ships through contractual negotiations. It includes the increase in "repatriation aid," or in other words, the sending back of tens of thousands of immigrant workers; and the generalization of part-time work to hide the unemployment among women. It is also a policy of increased cuts in public services, and worse working conditions and job security in the entire public sector, such as at the SNCF, the PTT [post office and telephone], and in the national education system.
But the real Barre Plan is yet to be revealed. To counter the effects of the international capitalist economic crisis, the French bourgeoisie seeks to strengthen its positions relative to its imperialist competitors. It knows it cannot do this without lowering the workers' standard of living.
2. To strike while the iron is hot, Giscard and Barre intend to exploit their slim victory in the second round of the legislative elections and the bowing and scraping in the direction of the Elysée Palace by the leaders of the workers organizations. Of course there is dissension within the parliamentary majority-regarding Europe and the budget for example-which flared up the day after the by-elections. But the RPR' is on the defensive. It does not have serious disagreements with the government's social policy. And while it tries to make some noise, in order not to drop out of sight, the RPR does not at this time have the resources to carry out an independent program. Its only seeming weapon, its ability to turn the government into a minority in parliament, is actually its principal weakness. This weapon would backfire against it if the anticipated elections had to be held. At this point there is nothing pushing the RPR to carry out this dangerous course. The bourgeoisie is closing ranks behind the austerity plan.
3. The recent by-elections (Saint-Denis, Gers, Pas-de-Calais, Nancy, Paris XIV) have special national significance-they were a dramatic rejection of the government and its austerity policy. While rejecting the war of attrition foisted on them by the leaders of the SP and CP, the workers voted without hesitation for these parties to assure the defeat of the bourgeois candidates. This confirms the gap between the majority in terms of seats in the Assembly and the real majority of living forces in this country—the workers, the young, and the toiling population.
It also highlights an evolution in the political relationship of forces within the workers movement. The decline in votes for the Communist Party and the major gain for the Socialist Party are not simply an extension of a tendency that was at work before the elections. Among many who traditionally working-class voters support the CP it signified two things:
• A desire to make the CP pay for the special responsibility it bore in the electoral defeat of the Union of the Left through its threats of blackmail in the second round;?
• A rejection of the sectarian policy the CP is carrying out today in no longer attacking the majority except through the intermediary of the SP, and in rejecting every proposal for unity against the employers' and government's austerity.
The SP leadership, by cultivating the appearance of being the injured party with respect to the CP's denunciations, has been able at little cost to cloak itself in an image of advocating unity. Even while openly discussing the best way to administer the austerity and defending the contracts being negotiated, and while playing its part in maintaining the divisions in concert with the CP's sectarianism and Edmond Maire's rejection of every move toward united trade-union action, the SP was able to turn to its benefit the deep desire of working-class voters to close ranks against the bourgeois offensive.
4. In face of a general attack, what is needed is a unified response by the entire working class. The general strike is the only answer corresponding to the gravity of the situation.
The leaders of the unions and of the workers parties have turned their backs on this perspective, cultivating division, dividing up the struggles, and signing contracts that ratify the giving up of gains previously won.
The CFDT is asking the workers to limit their sights to demands that are "accessible through union activity" and, in the name of the "deep differences," rejects any joint initiatives with other trade-union federations while at the same time praising plant-by-plant action.
The CGT accuses the CFDT of not opposing the government firmly enough, and of rejecting every initiative for united action. But, in turn, its leadership signs the worst contracts. It left it up to the CP to organize, in its own name, both the August 29 meeting of plants threatened with closing and the October 11 demonstration in front of the National Assembly. The only initiative the CT announced regarding the new session of the Assembly was a national CGT day a week before... its convention!
5. The general strike is, however, the only perspective open to the working class if it wants to put an end to the austerity.
Nothing would be more dangerous in the present situation than a false "realism" that leads the workers to retreat back to their plants, contenting themselves with "objectives within their reach." Some working-class militants might be tempted to yield to this in the absence of immediate perspectives. But in fact this would give a free hand to the policy of the union federations and would leave the field clear for the offensive of the employers and the government.
If a general strike is not now in the wings, it is brewing.
And the struggles that have taken place since the opening of the new session of the Assembly have shown how it has been possible to move forward in this direction:
• At the SNCF, by preparing a renewable general strike involving all branches, rather than fragmenting the action by departments.
• In the Lorraine steel mills, by carrying out a massive strike right after the defeat of Servan-Schreiber,* rather than stopping the struggle at Sollac-Sacilor when it was starting up at Solmer and Usinor.
• In the school system, by pushing toward the coordination of the schools where struggles were going on in order to prepare a general strike in the entire education system.
In all these struggles workers democracy is a weapon against division. Only decision-making general assemblies and elected strike committees that are responsible to the assemblies can assure a united thrust to the struggle, while ensuring that the existing differences do not serve as an alibi to justify passivity. This fight for strike committees can be carried out only if it is combined with a fight for the unity of union organizations.
The example of the united struggle of the Elastelle workers, which won ine support of a large number of union locals in Puy, clearly shows what can happen in numerous other plants. In the course of their struggle, by addressing an "open letter" to Maire, Séguy,® Bergeron? and Henry® asking that they jointly respond to the workers' needs and prepare a general strike, and by formulating the unifying demands needed for such a joint movement, the Blastelle workers gave expression to a deep aspiration of the great mass of workers. At the same time they combined this national call with a fight for local interunion committees, for coordination of locals in all the plants engaged in struggle (tanneries, textile), and for a general assembly of all the unemployed and laid-off workers in the region.
6. That is what leads the LCR to put forward the following perspective in response to the needs of the workers:
• Today the main obstacle to the development and coordination of struggles is the division in the ranks of the workers that is maintained by the leaderships of the CP and SP and is carried further by the CGT, CFDT, FO, and FEN union federations to further their policy of class collaboration.
• Unity of the unions and the workers parties is needed to carry out a plan of action against layoffs, for a thirty-five hour week without a decrease in pay, for a 2,500 franc minimum wage, a 300-franc wage increase for all, and a sliding scale of wages. To pave the way for this we need a mobilization that starts with interunion activity within the plants and localities, that bases itself on local and regional coordinating committees, on the centralization of the plants struggling against layoffs, laying the basis for a general strike to defeat the austerity plans.
• Any generalization of the struggles will inevitably lead to a confrontation with this government and its unrepresentative Assembly. To win their demands, the workers will have to compel the majority workers parties to break with the bourgeoisie and form a SP-CP government.
6. Head of the CGT.
7. Head of the labor federation Force Ouvrière (FO-Labor Force).
8. Head of the Fédération de l'Education Nationale (FEN-National Education
Federation,
France's largest teachers union).
Notes
1. Rassemblement pour la République (Assembly for the Republic, rightist party led by Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac).
2. French elections are held in two rounds. In the event that no candidate for a given post wins an absolute majority, a runoff is held in which all candidates who gained 12.5 percent or more of the vote are eligible to run. Traditionally, the parties of the left agree well in advance to withdraw on the second round in favor of the workers party candidate with the highest vote total, so as not to fragment the working-class vote. In this year's election, the Communist Party threatened up until a week before the second-round vote that it might not withdraw in favor of Socialist Party candidates.
3. Head of the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT-French Democratic Confederation of Labor, associated with the SP).
4. Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT- General Confederation of Labor, led by the CP).
5. A supporter of French President Giscard d'Estaing's austerity policy, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber was overwhelmingly defeated in a September 24 by-election by the SP candidate, steelworker Yves Tondon.